Age of Rebirth

Chapter 440: Baoding Changes Hands

After the troops of the Independent Division moved into Baoding City, they entangled with the Japanese army in the city with two brigades. They used the street fighting fortifications in the city for more than a month to consume and delay the actions of the Japanese army, luring the rest of us to fight in the street, and the rest of the troops passed through the city. Preset positions on the left and right wings of Baoding.

The Japanese army broke into Baoding City with a force of more than [-], and was met with fierce resistance from the defenders. They suffered heavy casualties, and their advance was blocked. They only occupied a small part of the northern part of Baoding City. , All failed. The street fighting fortifications of the independent division had been repaired underground, and there were no firepower points. No matter which direction the Japanese army attacked from, they would be severely hit by crossfire.

In the afternoon of the war, the Japanese army recruited planes to assist in the battle, and bombed Baoding City to the point of ruins. However, the Japanese planes were attacked by the anti-aircraft firepower of the Independent Division. After losing seven planes, the Japanese North China Dispatch Army Air Force was already frightened. The loss of the previous few days was unbearable, so it ended hastily.

At this time, the troops of the Third Brigade and the Fifth Brigade in the Independent Division had all been transferred to underground fortifications. The Japanese air firepower did not cause effective damage to the troops. Then, the Japanese army began to attack, and the firepower of the defenders was as dense and fierce as before. The Japanese army failed to attack several times and retreated to the occupied area in the north of the city. [

With two brigades of less than 3 troops, Tang Qiuli detained and entangled more than [-] Japanese troops in the center of Baoding. It is expected that there will be today's battle.

When the Japanese army commander was fighting fiercely with the defenders in the middle, the remaining troops were about 10 people. They were divided into left and right wings and passed around Baoding City. Unexpectedly, on the outskirts of Baoding, they were suddenly ambushed by an equal force from the Independent Division.

In the evening, the Japanese army surrounded the troops on the left and right wings. After losing more than [-] people, they retreated in horror. The Japanese commander's attempt failed, so he put all his troops into the battle for Baoding City. Under the circumstances, the third and fifth brigades of the independent division in the city resisted steadily and gradually retreated to the south of Baoding in an orderly manner.

At night, Baoding city was full of flames, burning houses and various buildings, billowing smoke, and the flames reflected half of the sky red. On the night of September [-]th and [-]th, Tang Qiuli commanded the troops to evacuate Baoding. There was already one person empty, and all the residents had evacuated. Before retreating, Tang Qiuli concentrated the artillery of two artillery brigades, and suddenly launched differential shelling on the central and northern parts of Baoding City, which lasted for an hour.

It is impossible to predict the effect of the bombardment. We only received a report from the special operations unit operating nearby. There was thick black smoke in Baoding City, and there was an extremely strong smell of burning animal flesh. It was suspected that the Japanese army burned the bodies of soldiers who died in battle. On the [-]th, the Japanese army occupied Baoding, and what they got was an empty city with ruins everywhere, almost barren.

Tang Qiuli set up an ambush circle in the mountains around Boye and Wenren, expecting the Japanese army to chase after them and wipe out their leading troops. However, the Japanese army did not advance. They were busy setting up a defense line on the front line of Baoding and establishing a puppet regime. It seemed that they wanted to confront the independent division for a long time. The plan came to nothing, the war in Hebei came to an end, and the situation in North China was temporarily stabilized.

This battle was the largest main force battle since the July 25th Incident. Tang Qiuli fought against 5 Japanese troops with [-] troops. He wiped out more than [-] enemies in the early stage and about [-] enemies in the later stage. , at the cost of more than [-] casualties and the abandonment of Baoding, the independent division wiped out nearly [-] enemies, and ended with the Japanese occupation of Baoding, an important town in southern Hebei. The lieutenant generals of the Qing Division all believed that they had achieved the goal of the campaign.

Tang Qiuli believes that Baoding is isolated in the south of Hebei, close to Pingjin, like a stick in the throat, and is an important node on the Pinghan Road. The Japanese army cannot tolerate falling into the hands of the independent division. The division could not afford to be exhausted. He had long intended to give up Baoding. He would not engage in a large-scale decisive battle with the Japanese army because of an isolated city. With the current strength of the independent division, he did not have all the conditions for a decisive battle with the Japanese army. The purpose of killing a large number of Japanese troops was enough, and the camera stopped. Moreover, after several days of fierce fighting, the casualties of the independent division were close to the strength of a main brigade.

Xiangyue Qingsi believed that when Baoding was occupied, the North China Dispatch Army had an absolute advantage in the strategic situation. The entire southern Hebei area fell under the control of the imperial army, and the geographical location of Baoding was like a fist stretched out from the Pingjin area. , If you go west, you can enter Shanxi, if you go south, you can attack Henan, and if you go east, you can go straight to Shandong.

Although the imperial army of the Japanese Empire suffered certain losses, it also inflicted heavy losses on the always arrogant North China Independent Division, and avenged the imperial warriors who had been smashed before. The price paid was well worth it. Prince Gong Zairen also agreed with the battle of Baoding.

Kiyoshi Kazuki still has a little bit of careful thought that cannot be said. Since taking over the position of Commander of the North China Dispatch Army from Tashiro Kanichiro, he has suffered a lot in the hands of Tang Qiuli, killing more than 30 people. It also caused the entire army of the Itagaki Division to be annihilated. If Prince Zairen hadn't covered him, his fate would not be much better. Many people in the military department have already complained about him.

He urgently needed a victory to save the unfavorable situation. Occupying Baoding was the pillow that was sent to him when he was dozing off. The insight is almost like a monster, so he can no longer afford to lose if he uses a heavy army group to launch an attack.

His current idea is to occupy Baoding. As for killing Tang Qiuli's North China Independent Division, he has never thought about it. Therefore, the troops surrounding Baoding on the left and right flanks were attacked by Tang Qiuli's equal forces. After hesitating, he immediately joined forces and attacked Baoding with all his strength. In this battle, he achieved his goal and won praise. This is the first time since the empire started the war in North China, he has captured a city controlled by an independent division. It is of great significance, Xiangyue Kiyoshi If the position is made secure, you can also raise your half-lowered head high.

The troops of the Independent Division retreated from the south of Hebei to the south, and re-established positions on the Shijiazhuang line. Tang Qiuli hoped that Xiangyue Qingji would launch an attack again. The vast area could disperse the Japanese troops and find suitable targets for the troops. Tang Qiu hopes that through several major annihilation battles, the Japanese army's superiority in military strength will be further weakened, and the current passive situation of being suppressed by the Japanese army's heavy troops and only defensive can be gradually changed.

However, from mid-September to the end of September, the Japanese army in North China had no intention of continuing to attack south at all. They were only busy building solid city defenses, establishing a puppet regime, and establishing various puppet organizations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Baojiao Triangle area to return the U.S. Its name is "to stabilize the ruling order in the occupied areas and establish a North China model area of ​​the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."

Tang Qiuli had organized several battles, but it was obviously not a wise move to attack a heavily fortified city where the Japanese army was heavily fortified because the Japanese army remained unmoved. Engage in large-scale battles in the vast area of ​​​​Hebei.

The battlefield in North China was so dull that Tang Qiuli almost went crazy because the Japanese army was sticking to the spot and the opportunity to wipe out the enemy, while the battlefield in Songhu in East China was confusing. More than 4 remnants of Matsui Iwane were wandering in the waters off the Yangtze River Estuary. For many days, they neither attacked nor retreated, just sticking around Shanghai like this.

However, Generalissimo Jiang reduced the military strength of Shanghai's garrison from the current 20 to 10. Some central military units gradually withdrew from Shanghai, and reorganized the structure of Shanghai's naval forces, canceling the establishment of the Ninth and Tenth Group Armies, and Zhang Zhizhong was the commander of the Shanghai garrison, and he raised the guard forces of all parties in Shanghai in a unified manner. However, the force in his hand was reduced by half.

The Tenth Army restored the designation of the Sulu Mobile Corps of the North China Independent Division. Changfeng's troops withdrew from Shanghai and returned to the organizational system. Zhang Fakui's Eighth Army retained its original designation and continued to undertake the defensive tasks in the Hangzhou Bay area. However, the Central Army was not strengthened. The main division has not improved its equipment, and it is still the original motley army and local security regiment troops. [

Generalissimo Jiang also called to ask for Tang Qiuli's opinion. In view of the fact that the fighting in the Songhu area has subsided and the Japanese army in North China has a large force, and the Japanese army is attacking Shanghai, there is no need to maintain a large force in Shanghai. The Sulu Mobile Corps should stay in the Suzhou-Hangzhou area. If necessary, whether it can be transferred back to the original defense line of Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu to strengthen the defense line of the Yellow River.

This is Tang Qiuli's face. In addition to the Battle of Songhu, Chang Feng's troops fought very well and became the pillar and backbone of the defense. They killed the most Japanese troops. The old man knew that it was not easy to use them up. Just kick it away, and besides, when Songhu was nervous, he still asked Zhang Zhizhong to ask others to send troops for reinforcements, so he asked Tang Qiuli for his opinion. There is no room for negotiation.

Tang Qiuli couldn't figure it out, why did the old man think that there would be no problems in Shanghai?The Japanese are not afraid of being beaten, and they will not stop here. The current situation is the calm before the storm. Besides, my troops stay in East China to guard your home and guard the hospital, and they will not eat or drink your food. Yours, even the medicine is dispatched from the Taihang Mountains base area, there is no need to add a pill from the central government, what's the problem with you?Are you afraid that taking away your Nanjing will fail?

Tang Qiuli sent a telegram back to Chairman Jiang: "The current situation in Shanghai is not as clear as it appears on the surface. The remnants of the Japanese army dispatched to Shanghai are still in the open sea. Their intentions are very suspicious, and the Japanese have not yet made an attack. The war in Shanghai is bound to intensify, and Tang Qiusheng's department will stay in Suzhou and Hangzhou to prepare for emergencies. The situation in North China is now stabilizing, and it is necessary for Tang Qiusheng's department to transfer to northern Jiangsu. Please consider it, Chairman."

Chairman Jiang did not know how he felt after receiving Tang Qiuli's call back. Anyway, he no longer insisted on letting the Sulu Mobile Corps return to the Xuzhou area. When a new round of war broke out, they didn't take it seriously, thinking that Tang Qiuli was worrying too much, which made Tang Qiuli more depressed.

(To be continued) (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to *** (******) to vote, ***, your support is my biggest motivation.)